The 12th House-Our In Utero Experience
The 12th house, often referred to as the house of one’s own undoing, has historically been misunderstood or, at the very least, challenging for astrologers to interpret. I once read a chart for a client with a loaded 12th house, and she mentioned that a previous astrologer had told her the planets in that house were unreadable. I chuckled, as I believe that, while these placements can indeed be confusing or puzzling, an astrologer with sufficient experience and intuitive patience can certainly interpret the meanings of those planets. In that astrologer's case, the comment likely stemmed from a lack of experience or knowledge. However, there is some truth to the idea that planets in the 12th house are inherently elusive and mysterious.
Traditionally, the 12th house governs all things unseen and unconscious. Neptune, Pisces, and the 12th house share similar qualities, revealing where the archetype that yearns for unity with oneness plays out in the native's psyche. Just as with the 12th house, Neptune in the birth chart often indicates areas where a person may experience disconnection from reality, confusion, or the need to undergo a disillusionment process. It also highlights where the native can transcend and access intuitive awareness, serving as a medium for art, healing, or simply embodying unconditional love—especially when they maintain a healthy balance with the practicality of Saturn.
As a Neptune conjunct Sun native it has always been one of my favorite planets, although the deliverer of much hardship, deception, and false hope. However, the 12th house didn't particularly interest me early in my studies, as I had no planets there and seldom focused on the charts of those who did. Once I began practicing professionally and the number of charts I analyzed increased, I quickly had to learn about the intricacies of the 12th house. It’s important to note that my approach to readings is very direct, psychological, and penetrating—extremely Plutonian, I would say. I’m not interested in unpacking the current life circumstances the client is facing; instead, I aim to help them uncover the core beliefs and complexes developed in early childhood that are impacting their lives today. Addressing current issues is akin to our medical system offering a pill for pain rather than addressing the root cause—it’s merely symptom treatment.
Much of understanding early psychological development can be seen through the Sun, Moon, and the first through fourth houses. However, this only takes us from ages 0 to about 14, with the fifth house marking the emergence of one’s creativity and sexual expression. The ascendant represents the first breath that begins the native’s experience in the world, but what about before that? Life doesn't start with the first breath—it begins at conception. But where is this reflected in the birth chart? I couldn’t find an answer in my studies, so I crafted my own. Well, not entirely—I used an intuitive grasp of astrology and basic psychological principles, then tested my theory with clients. I realized that the experience of the native in utero could be seen through the 12th house. It made sense why it had all been so confusing, and not just because 'that's the way Neptunian-ruled things are.'
I should also mention, for the well-read astrologers out there, that I recently came across this same theory in Liz Greene and Howard Sasportas’ The Development of the Personality. This discovery only confirmed everything I had already been applying in my practice. I was delighted to learn that someone as influential as Sasportas had also developed this theory independently, without having encountered it elsewhere as well. Reading his brief mention of it gave me the final nudge to share my own interpretation of the 12th house.
A full-term pregnancy lasts between 37 and 42 weeks, during which we feel and experience everything through our mother’s body. As she breathes, we breathe; as she eats, we eat; as she lives, we live. This may be the most Neptunian experience we have in our entire lives. Unless one is a rare spiritual master capable of transcending the ego and mind, our only true exposure to oneness with all things is in the womb. A baby in utero has no concept of a world beyond the amniotic sac. It doesn’t know that its mother has a life beyond it. All it knows is the rhythm of her heartbeat and the life force flowing through the umbilical cord. There are no boundaries—what she is, we are. Some say we spend our whole lives trying to return to this feeling—whether through the pursuit of romantic relationships or spiritual devotion—but it can never truly be recaptured in the same effortless way it was during the first nine months, when it was our only state of awareness.
Planets in the 12th house are often described as 'hidden' or buried deep within the realm of the subconscious. This traditional interpretation can leave natives with placements here feeling a sense of hopelessness, as they struggle to find tangible ways to heal from their past. While I agree that these planets can be challenging to access, I don't believe it’s impossible—God isn't that cruel. Astrology is meant to be a tool for decoding our human condition, not a condemnation of it.
The subconscious begins to develop while we are in the womb of our mothers so planets placed in the 12th house were archetypes that developed within our psyche when we were in utero. Many of us, I’d say the majority of us, don’t actually remember what that was like so no wonder these planets feel inaccessible. Most traditional therapies focus on unpacking early childhood, but if you came through the birth canal with a core belief of inadequacy, unworthiness, or similar feelings, how could you ever hope to unpack that by simply trying to recall early childhood experiences?
In my work, I have observed that natives with placements in the 12th often struggle with the same issue over and over in their life and no matter what they try cannot understand why they are feeling the way they do, no matter the efforts they make to work on themselves they fall victim to it. Everyone around them wonders why they can’t just see the error of their ways, but they just have an unexplainable and untraceable “feeling” that seems inescapable. It should be noted that other delineations of the 12th house include institutions, imprisonment, and victimhood. This clearly shows how the native may be feeling, a prisoner to themselves without knowing why.
This house, as I said in the first line of this article, is called the house of your own undoing. In my early study when I read this all I could feel was an overwhelming sense of gratitude that I didn’t have any planets there. As my work has developed I feel completely the opposite. Yes, natives with placements here do have a certain amount of struggle that most people won’t experience, but they also hold an opportunity of transcendence and true surrender that is not available to the rest of us 11 housers. The 12th house is the window of the soul and connection to God, through it we can actually return to that feeling of oneness that we experienced in utero, but with more consciousness. For natives with planets here, those planets are their doorway.
In our world, most of us fear losing ourselves and our ego, becoming too preoccupied with the distractions of life to realize that this isn't the purpose of our existence. Have you ever wondered why we begin life with a sense of oneness? Perhaps it’s to give us a glimpse of the Divine state of God, allowing us to understand, on some level, that the trappings of the material world pale in comparison. Even the most materialistic and selfish individuals possess an innate desire to receive and experience love. We seek it through our parents, then through partners, or even through inanimate objects like alcohol, drugs, or pornography. All of these pursuits are efforts to escape the human condition that constantly reminds us of our separation from Love itself. Planets in the 12th house can either lead to a form of 'negative' undoing if left to fester in the subconscious or serve as the destroyers of our ego, allowing us to return to the true state of oneness that we crave. However, this transformation does come at the cost of sacrificing and “undoing the self.”
In a perfect world, we would all be conceived by mothers who were excited for our arrival and who experienced stable, ideal circumstances throughout our early lives in utero. However, as we know, this is often not the case. Much of what we feel and experience while inside her can be directly influenced by her feelings about the pregnancy, but many factors also relate to her self-perception or the uncontrollable circumstances she faces in the months leading up to our arrival. To reiterate my earlier point, there is no filter and no boundaries between her emotions, thoughts, and experiences and our developing selves. We are completely unprotected; what she is, we are.
For example, if someone has Jupiter in the 12th house with no negative aspects, their experience in utero was likely expansive, providing them with a blueprint of feeling connected to a generous, abundant force. Maybe their mother was one of the lucky ones who had a wonderful pregnancy without too many complications and wanted you in this world. Many astrologers interpret Jupiter in the 12th house as a 'guardian angel' placement, suggesting that individuals with this placement possess an innate sense of luckiness and divine protection, allowing them to approach life with fearless and trusting optimism. They simply have this quality; it doesn’t require cultivation, and those around them often marvel at their unwavering belief that everything will always work out for the best. Sometimes it can manifest as trusting this a tad too much and finding themselves getting out of sticky situations by the skin of their teeth, but not to worry at some point Saturn will come around and humble them with gratitude no doubt. This feeling however likely didn’t develop in childhood through supportive parenting but instead originated within the womb. Astrology can sometimes evoke the classic 'chicken or egg' dilemma: who is to say that because Jupiter is in the 12th house, this person is divinely protected simulating the womb experience, or that because they developed a subconscious feeling of protection in the womb, Jupiter was present in the 12th at their first breath, allowing them to continue manifesting this reality?
Now, let's say your mother’s experience of life was less than Jupitarian while she was pregnant with you — what could this look like? Let’s just say Saturn sits in the 12th. Saturn rules coldness, rejection, and restriction. Perhaps the pregnancy was accidental, and during it, the mother did not want to be pregnant. Another possibility is that your mother experienced a significant amount of hardship or was depressed while she was pregnant, so the imprint you received was that the world is a difficult place filled with struggle. This native’s experience of life from the start was one of being unwanted, and that life is not a warm or safe experience.
Maybe, with the child’s arrival, the mother holds it for the first time and completely changes her ideas, deciding from that point forward to be an ideal mother. She shares the first glance and feels an abundance of love, which impacts the way she raises the child. This native may believe that the world is a cold place and, no matter what, they are unwanted and unworthy. Later in life, they struggle with depression, hopelessness, or other challenges associated with having this core belief that life is difficult. They attend regular therapy, but when talking about their experience of their mother, she was always warm, attentive, and loving. Again, they are left in a state of hopelessness, not understanding where this lingering feeling of sadness and difficulty comes from.
Finally, they somehow, by God’s will, receive an astrology reading recognizing the core belief and the complex of struggle imprinted on their subconscious. They receive validation for something they have always felt on a cellular level but gaslit themselves into believing was just made up — the idea that their mother did not love them. By validating this belief, the native is able to release the abundance of pain associated with it and begin to rewrite the story of Saturn in their birth chart. Saturn challenges us to take responsibility — this native, from the beginning of life, was experiencing circumstances challenging them to take responsibility for the feelings coming up in their subconscious. Once they do, there is relief from struggle and unworthiness. Their unworthiness may also become a medium for beautiful artwork, healing, or understanding for others going through the same thing.
Saturn, in its healthiest form, creates structure to support its endeavors, so they may even be able to create a course or something tangible that makes the matters of the 12th house — spirituality, mysticism, the unconscious, and oneness — tangible to others who need it.
In summation, the planets in the 12th house represent archetypes that were developed within the native’s psyche before they even took their first breath, which is what makes them so unconscious and difficult to work with. These archetypes however are windows into the soul that lead the native back to their longing of oneness and unity. I believe that planets in the 12th are further confirmation that everything we feel, no matter how “crazy” or seemingly out of nowhere it comes from, has validity and needs to be addressed. All of these complexes are what lead us out of being a victim of circumstance and into devotion unadulterated to the highest version of ourselves.
Check out my instagram to see a short summary of what each planet in the 12th may mean for you! https://www.instagram.com/thefeminineastrologer/
